by Tino Mantella, President and CEO Tier4 Advisors
How would CIOs and their counterparts feel if they could find at least ten extra hours a week for leisurely pleasures and/or high-end work? The fact is that many technology leaders go to battle each day to address priority issues while still striving for a life balance.
Recent studies have shown that most IT professionals spend ten hours or more in a week talking to vendors. What are the primary factors that go into the time-spend? At this point, I am going to provide a hypothesis as to the why. First of all, many tech leaders by their very nature, are self-reliant. They have gotten to where they are today, in part, by understanding the technology details related to complex issues. Also, most are good community citizens who want to show the local community vendors that they care. Finally, they need the answers so they reach out to those in the know.
The challenge related to this old, and I would suggest an outdated process, is that the world is changing fast. The pace of change in the technology arena is accelerating. New vendors are entering the market while some old providers have outlived their useful life. Terminologies are changing as the newer buzzwords include such things as cloud, the internet of things, UCaaS, SDWAN, augmented and virtual reality.
It’s not practical to think that IT professionals can keep up with everything new and still do their day to day job. So, at Tier4 we ask the question as to why IT leadership gets pulled into things like writing RFPs, visiting data centers, meeting with multiple vendors, and contract negotiations.
There must be a better way, right? The good news is that there is a better way. Tier4 has been built around doing the dirty work. By that I mean, our clients have us do what they don’t want to do or don’t have the time to do; the discovery, analysis, RFP development, and bidding. We work with our clients to select the best option(s) and take their initiatives all the way through the selection process to the conclusion. Here is the thing; we have come to learn a great deal about each vendor within our catchment areas (data centers, cloud, colocation, connectivity, UCaaS, security, and game-changing technologies).
Here is a simple example of how our unique business offering can save time and money. A typical CIO may go through two or three data center decisions in their career. The Tier4 team has completed hundreds of transformational projects for and with our clients in the last 4.5 years. I would ask again – why would a CIO or his/her designee go about the comprehensive process of deciding on their next data center move when Tier4 can “set the table” for them, not only saving countless hours but making certain that the very best solution, with the right vendor, is the end result?
The CIO/CTO community consists of exceptional leaders. Food for thought – the time has come to not do everything on your own when a company like Tier4 stands at the ready to provide support and save time and money while still optimizing the outcome.
Tier4 Blog Edition 10: October 18, 2017